


Hospitality

by youcouldmakealife



Series: Impaired Judgment (and other excuses) [124]
Category: Original Work
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:36:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26882284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youcouldmakealife/pseuds/youcouldmakealife
Summary: “Bryce is being really fucking annoying,” Gabe mutters under his breath. “No offence.”“None taken,” Jared mutters back.
Relationships: OMC/OMC
Series: Impaired Judgment (and other excuses) [124]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/849798
Comments: 46
Kudos: 373





	Hospitality

Jared doesn’t have enough time to meet his family for anything particularly formal before the game, but he’s got years of experience with this rink, as do his parents, and his dad has earned the firm loyalty of some of the security staff who were around when Jared was a member of the Hitmen, so when his dad asks him if he wants to meet in ‘that spot’ Jared knows exactly what he’s talking about, ducks out of the loose circle that’s been kicking a soccer ball around, waving a dismissive hand when Dmitry tells him that means he forfeits by default. 

“We’re going out to dinner before the game, but we wanted to see you first,” his mom says, and then pulls him into a hug.

“You have to share our child,” his dad complains when she doesn’t let go of him. “Susan.”

Jared gets a shorter hug from his dad, one with a lot of back slapping, and an uptilted chin from Erin.

“Sup,” Erin says. 

“Sup,” Jared says. 

He can see mom rolling her eyes. She’s not subtle.

“May the best team win tonight, hey?” his dad says. Erin’s in a Canucks jersey — Jared’s genuinely surprised she isn’t wearing his old Oilers one to troll both him and everyone in the arena, mom must have threatened her or something — but his dad isn’t, is wearing one from Jared’s Hitmen era.

Jared eyes him and his very Calgarian jersey. “That sounds mature of you,” he says.

“Dad’s very mature now, Jared,” Erin says. “He’s grown up a lot since you went to Vancouver.”

“Hey,” his dad says. “I’m mature. I can be mature.”

“You want the Flames to win tonight, don’t you?” Jared guesses.

“You’re a lock!” his dad says. “The Canucks are making the postseason no matter what! The Flames need this game!”

“Don,” his mom says.

“I’m just saying that one team needs this game more than the other team does,” his dad mutters.

“You want Bryce to beat me tonight,” Jared says. “Like — just to be clear, you want Bryce to beat me? You want your only son to lose this game to Bryce Marcus. Bryce Marcus.”

“Fuck off,” his dad mutters. 

“Don!” his mom says.

Jared can’t stop grinning. “I’m really proud of you, dad,” he says.

“Jared!” his mom says.

“What!” Jared says. “That’s a positive statement! I can’t be proud of my father?”

His dad eyes him. Jared grins back, which makes his dad get even squintier. The bigger Jared grins, the squintier his dad gets.

Which is of course what Elaine walks into. Jared didn’t know she was coming, but he can’t actually say he’s surprised? This seems like the sort of game she’d make a point of flying out to, and he can fully see Bryce insisting on buying her a ticket and then keeping her as a giddy little secret to himself. He can’t say he’s surprised she made it past security either — they probably wouldn’t even need to know she was Bryce’s mom, she’d just smile that Elaine smile and they’d be like ‘of course, go right on ahead nice lady’. Though his parents don’t seem surprised either, just happy to see her, so maybe it was just a secret from Jared. 

Everyone gets their big Elaine hugs — Jared included, even though it hasn’t been all that long since he’s seen her — and dad drops the grumpy squinty face now that she can witness it. They look all — familial, Jared guesses? Like Elaine’s officially part of the family now, like there’s a Marcus-Matheson tribe. She’s probably going out with them before the game, sticking around after Jared flies out, staying in his and Bryce’s guest room, her and Bryce going to his parents’ place for dinner, eating his dad’s food while all the Mathesons pretend to be nice people for the length of her visit. 

It’s weird how that makes Jared happier than it does like, left out? But good, he guesses. Like, he’ll probably end up sulking about not getting to stick around and eat his dad’s cooking and watch his family pretend they aren’t evil so that they don’t scare Elaine away, but the fact that they’re doing it even when Jared isn’t there, that they _want_ to hang out is — nice. Nice in the same way seeing pictures of Bryce and Chaz and Ash hanging out together makes Jared feel — grateful it’s happening even if he can’t be there.

“You’ll have the house to yourself for a couple days,” Elaine says to Jared, confirming his theory, at least the her sticking around part. “Sorry about the Flames jersey,” like she needs to apologise for wearing her own son’s jersey. “I’ve got a Canucks shirt on underneath, I wanted to be fair to both of you!”

“The Flames do need this game,” his dad says. It’s kind of hilarious that his own father is being less supportive of Jared than Bryce’s mom, but, well — the Flames do need the game.

Jared’s still planning on kicking their sorry asses.

*

The Flames are playing this game like, well. Like they need to win it. It’s wave after wave of offence, and Jared’s spending an infuriating amount of time in his own end, trying to help an overwhelmed D out. Every time they manage to get it to the neutral zone the Flames are coming right back for it. And that’s playing the Flames’ second line. Jared’s just grateful he’s not matched against Bryce’s, because Bryce is playing amazing, which is really fucking annoying. Like top of his game, flying past people, and that’s before he breaks Pollock’s ankles on a breakaway, puts it in on an absolute beautiful goal that is going to be in the highlight reels for sure. Possibly for awhile. Like goal of the season shortlist. Not just Bryce’s season. The NHL season. It was basically pornographic as far as goals go.

Jared bets his dad didn’t grunt at that goal. He bets he was part of the deafening roar when it went in.

Jared seethes. 

“Bryce is being really fucking annoying,” Gabe mutters under his breath. “No offence.”

“None taken,” Jared mutters back.

The best team does not win. Well, the team that plays best did, and unfortunately that is not Jared’s team. He should consider it a silver lining that they are, in fact, in a very comfortable position in the standings, and that his husband had a terrific night: a stunning goal, three points, the game winner, the first star of the game, just took his team closer to the postseason and once again made it patently obvious that he’s the Flames’ MVP.

Jared does not like to lose, though, so he’ll sulk a bit first. He finds the sulking lasts a bit longer now that he’s on a team where he doesn’t lose all the time — as much as he tried not to hit a point on the Oilers where he was resigned to losing, it crept up on him anyway.

Jared is not, however, too busy sulking to meet up with his family briefly again — Jared’s got a flight and it’s a weeknight, so no one can really stick around what with work and school, but they sneak in another round of hugs, his dad’s face so infuriatingly smug it leads to his mom elbowing him in ribs stomach multiple times to no avail — and then Jared has enough time to have a very clandestine meeting with Bryce in the parking lot before he has to get on the bus to head to the airport. 

That sounds really sketchy, like they fucked in the back seat of Bryce’s car or something. They did spend it in Bryce’s car — tinted windows are great— but there was zero fucking. Jared pretty much spent the whole time with his face in Bryce’s neck, trying to get months’ worth of hugs in at once. There’s no real way to know when he’s going to see him next, with the Canucks in the playoffs and the Flames on the verge. Jared might be seeing Bryce just a week after his birthday if the Flames fuck it up and end up out of contention, or he might not be seeing him until they’re facing off in a series, which would be — Jared hopes that doesn’t happen. Bryce being super talented was annoying enough in a regular season game the Canucks could afford to lose, Jared doesn’t know how well he’d handle it if Bryce scored a goal that knocked Jared out of the playoffs.

He’s vaguely curious who his dad would cheer for though. Probably Jared? But who knows with that traitor.

Jared’s not feeling great on the ride to the airport, already preemptively homesick before they’ve even gotten to the airport. He’s a little worried he looks as sad as he feels, that someone’s going to pick up on it, but what are they really going to think? ‘Wow it’s weird that Jared looks sad leaving his literal hometown’. It’s hardly suspicious behaviour. 

He sticks headphones in while they wait to board, responds to texts from Raf, Ashley, Grace, Julius. They’re all chirping him, but Julius’ text is straight up mean. Jared sends back a mean one of his own, and in response Julius gets even meaner. It’s making Jared feel a little better.

 _miss you already_ Bryce texts, just after Jared replies to a text from Julius saying he hopes the Canucks make it to the Conference Finals. Which sounds nice, but Jared totally knows he means ‘and so do the Flames so you have to play against your husband, bitch’. 

_Soft_ , Jared replies, but can’t help but add a _You too_ , because he’s also soft, he guesses. But only for Bryce. Julius is getting another mean text.

Boarding goes as planned. There was a tiny part of Jared that hoped for a sudden snowstorm even though the skies were clear, but no luck. Jared takes a spot close to the front, and Gabe, behind him, pauses as Jared takes the window seat.

“You want to sit alone, or—”

Jared shrugs, which Gabe apparently takes as a ‘nope’, since he takes the seat beside him.

“Sucks leaving home,” Gabe says.

“Yeah,” Jared says.

Gabe shakes him by the shoulder a few times, a wordless ‘chin up’, and Jared usually wouldn’t appreciate it, but it’s nice to have someone who knows and like, gets it. Well, not the separation, him and Stephen don’t have to be apart for anything longer than a road trip, and if Gabe got traded Jared figures Stephen would be able to follow, but still.

“If you want to vent,” Gabe says. “I’ve been told I’m a good listener.”

“Thanks,” Jared says. “I’m told I’m a venter.”

“So’s Stephen,” Gabe says. “I’ve got a lot of practice as a ventee.”

“Noted,” Jared says.

*

It’s weird being at Elaine’s place by himself. Like, he enjoys it a bit, having a place to himself for the first time in awhile, but he’s also pretty sure he’s going to be relieved when Elaine gets back. Considering he likes his space, he wouldn’t have guessed that it’d be lonely, even after a few days, but it kind of is. He’s gotten too used to having people around all the time, he guesses. Marcus specific people, with a Julius interlude. 

Gabe and Stephen invite him over for dinner halfway through Elaine’s trip, which helps a bit. Bryce has officially given permission for Stephen to know, after a very intense grilling about Stephen’s trustworthiness, then presumably a google search, which lead to him saying ‘why didn’t you tell me Stephen was an NHLer?’, which was the first time _Jared_ had heard that, and lead to a horrified half hour on Youtube watching Stephen taking a career ending puck to the wrist, reading about how many surgeries he needed just to regain use of his hand, and a write-up about his transition from NHL player to player agent. 

Bryce was fairly assured of Stephen’s ability to keep his mouth shut after that. As was Jared. He’s looking at him differently now — maybe that’s why neither Gabe nor Stephen said anything — but knows better than to ask about it, because clearly Stephen doesn’t want to talk about it. And Jared can’t blame him. Stephen was Jared’s age when he got injured. Jared can’t imagine what the hell he’d do with his life if he got injured right now. Probably end up fighting a lot with Bryce about not being his sugar baby or whatever the hell.

Stephen blinks twice when Jared tells him over dinner, then says, “The punched an Oilers fan Bryce Marcus?” in the driest voice in the world, like there’s another, not punched an Oilers fan Bryce Marcus somewhere out there.

“Look—” Jared says, “He’s—”, over Gabe’s “Stephen, come on—”

Stephen bites into his burrito as Jared goes through what’s become an exhaustingly common refrain about Bryce’s character growth.

“If I could have gotten away with it I definitely would have punched a Flyers fan or two,” Stephen says, then goes back to his burrito. “They were dicks on twitter after.”

“After—” Jared says.

“You’ve been looking at my wrist since you got here,” Stephen says.

“Oh,” Jared says. “I — sorry.”

“Kind of surprised you didn’t figure it out sooner,” Stephen says. “It was all over hockey news when it happened.”

“I was pretty much just following the Flames and playing my own game back then,” Jared says. “Also I was like, twelve?”

Stephen stares at him.

Jared blinks back.

“Get out of my house,” Stephen says.

Jared glances over at Gabe, who looks amused instead of uncomfortable, so Jared doesn’t think it’s a legitimate ‘get out of my house’ unlike the one Jared delivered to Chaz.

“You’re a baby,” Stephen says.

“Hey,” Jared says.

“An infant,” Stephen says. “Maybe a toddler.”

“I am not a toddler,” Jared says.

“Kindergarten at most,” Stephen says. “Gabriel, this is child abduction. Who let him come here? And you’re _married_? How long have you known this boy?”

“We’re channelling my mom today, huh?” Gabe asks.

Stephen gives him the finger. “Did you meet in _pre-school_?”

“We met when I was seventeen!” Jared says. 

“Oh so _ages_ ago,” Stephen says.

“It’s been almost four years!” Jared says. “I’m twenty-one next week!”

Jared can’t believe that sentence just came out of his mouth. The more Stephen calls him a baby the more he’s sounding like one. He feels like that may have been Stephen’s plan all along. He doesn’t like this.

“Hey cool, are we going to be in the States?” Gabe asks. “Dmitry’s going to want to take you out.”

“Do not go anywhere with Dmitry Kurmazov on your birthday,” Stephen says. “It will end poorly and you will regret it. I cannot overstate this.”

“You sound like your dad now,” Gabe says, and Stephen gives him the finger again, which — if Bryce ever told Jared he sounded like his dad Jared would probably try to smother him with a pillow, so the middle finger seems like a very reasonable response. An underreaction, even. If Bryce said Jared sounded like Elaine, well — that’d absolutely be a compliment, but Jared doubts that’s ever going to happen. 

“Dmitry’s harmless,” Gabe says. “It’s his wife Oksana you’ve got to watch out for.”

“Duly noted,” Jared says. He’s still listening to Stephen’s advice about his birthday. He feels like it’s probably good advice.

“Twenty-one,” Stephen mutters. “Jesus christ.”

“Does it help that Bryce is twenty-four?” Jared asks.

“Does it—” Stephen says. “He’s twenty-four? You met — you were a _baby_.”

Jared is suddenly aware that it does not help that Bryce is twenty-four. 

“Do I need to call your mother?” Stephen asks.

“Stephen,” Gabe says. 

“I’m calling your mother,” Stephen says. “What’s her number.”

As much as Gabe and Stephen never want Jared to meet their parents? Jared is suddenly just as intent that Stephen never meets his father. He feels like it wouldn’t go well for him.

“Stephen,” Gabe says. “Stop, he looks petrified.”

“I know,” Stephen says. “It’s hilarious.”

Wait.

“ _Hey_ ,” Jared says as Stephen takes another bite of his burrito, looking infuriatingly pleased with himself. He’s changed his mind; it’s his mom Stephen’s never allowed to meet.


End file.
